Sister Souljah rejects any labels on her literary output

What became known in politics as a "Sister Souljah moment" began in 1992, when presidential candidate Bill Clinton, speaking to Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition, attacked the then-rapper.

He criticized her for saying, "If black people kill black people every day, why not have a week and kill white people?" Souljah said she was quoted out of context, that she was speaking in the mind-set of a gang member.

But politically, it was seen as a way for Clinton to distance himself from Jackson.

Last spring, when Barack Obama distanced himself from remarks by his pastor, Jeremiah Wright, South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn, the highest-ranking African American in the House, said it was Obama’s "Sister Souljah moment."

Says Souljah: "Black people don't know what white people are talking about when they talk about a Sister Souljah moment. I tell them it's the moment you meet a proud, beautiful black woman you can never forget." And she laughs.


Sixteen years ago, she made headlines when Bill Clinton, in his first presidential campaign, criticized Souljah's racially charged remarks.

These days, she prefers talking about her best-selling novels, The Coldest Winter (1999) and its new prequel, Midnight: A Gangster Love Story (Atria, $26.95).



Her publisher says The Coldest Winter has 1 million copies in print. Midnight made its debut on USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list last week at No. 31. This week it's No. 54.

Souljah isn't surprised her new book is selling. For nine years, her readers have been asking about Midnight, a handsome, fiercely proud Sudanese immigrant who had a supporting role in her first novel.

"Some girls even wanted his phone number," she says. "I had to tell them, 'He's fictional.' "

Souljah says she spotted Mark Edwards, the young man who's pictured on the front of the book, at a mall in New Jersey. "I said: 'That's the face. That's Midnight. He glows.' " The photos were taken by her husband, Mike Rich.

In the novel, Midnight, who immigrates to New York at 7, comes of age, struggling to uphold his Islamic values amid urban violence. Souljah wrote it to explain "how he was raised and got to be the man he is."

Souljah got to be famous, at least to many white people, thanks to Clinton. And it was Clinton's attack that led to a lengthy interview with Playboy that led to her 1994 memoir, No Disrespect. She moved into fiction as "less restrictive."

But, she says, "I was well known to African Americans before Bill Clinton discovered me. He was like Christopher Columbus riding up on something he didn't understand." But that "has been played out. I'm not interested in discussing it."

She praises President-elect Barack Obama for his "intelligence and endurance."

Does the election of the first black president change her views, once expressed in a song she did with Ice Cube: "If my world's black and yours is white/ How the hell could we think alike"?

"History is history," she says. "What is done is done. That's not going to change. … But it's a measure of improvement that white America selected an African-American leader." Best of all, she says, "is seeing a black person presented in a positive light."

Souljah won't reveal her age. References say she was born in 1964. "Maybe," she says.

She lives in New York City, but she won't say which neighborhood. "That's all I need: a crowd showing up, demanding a sequel." (Yes, one is coming. More on that later.)

She brings her son, Michael Jr., 15, to the interview at her publisher's office, but declares he's "off-limits." It has been reported he's home-schooled, as is Midnight in her novel. "None of your business," she tells a reporter. She has given up performing hip-hop but speaks often at colleges on topics such as "Healing Male-Female Relationships." "The emphasis is on the talk, not the rhyme, but the purpose is the same," she says.

She's writing a sequel to Midnight that she promises "will tie up all the loose ends" from her first two novels. "It's the sequel the world is waiting for."

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I read Coldest Winter... she's funny about the sequel thing, is it really THAT HOT on people's minds?? Glad she's still writing...